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Renault Clio DCI

18K views 42 replies 13 participants last post by  Arwel 
#1 ·
Thought I would start a new thread on the latest little project. Long story short is me and the misses decided to combine cars and buy something nice. We recently ordered a Q5 S line to replace her Fiesta ST and my Passat. The Passat went back in March and since then I've been in a loaner Golf tdi which you would think would be economical but isnt. So I was in need of a cheap car to get me back and forth to work so was I looking at a max budget of £1500, had to be under 10 year old and be diesel and £30 a tax.

After a few near purchases with Fiestas', Corsas', Puntos' and a few other little cars I took the plunge on an accident damaged Clio. The car was sourced at a good price and the initial repair cost didn't seem to bad. So I ended up with an 09 Clio 1.5 DCI, 87k on the clock and mechanically she is spot on.





So the hunt was on for a bumper, wing, bonnet, headlight and 4 seatbelts due to the pre tensioners going off and locking them. A search on ebay turned up this


A complete car with an injector fault was bought for £300, Im never one to stumble across a bargain but for once I was lucky. So panels are in the process of being switched over trial fitting and then they'll be off for paint.

The car has been sat in a yard for some time so is filthy but im looking forward to getting my hands on it properly and bringing it upto an acceptable standard. Im also planning a few little tweaks here and there with it all which will happen in time.
 
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#5 · (Edited)
Thanks for the replies people. This is the first time I've had a go at repairing a crash damaged car for the road. I've built rally cars and always repaired them when they've taken a knock or too but nothing like this before.

The problem with the black one is that the injectors are knackered and it doesn't run right. Plus it has some damage to the passenger side too and isn't as clean as the silver one.

The whole front end is now off the black one and on the silver one so it's been quite quick. Some HID or LED cree bulbs will definitely be going in the projectors and the cornering lights will be converted to run as day time running lights so it should look quite smart once its all done.

I had to buy a new hub as the silver one had a bent one and the black one has a 6 speed box so the hubs were different but £35 wasn't bad for a replacement. Hopefully the hub will arrive by Saturday and it can be fitted so the car will be all sorted to go for paint then.

We're off on holiday Monday so it'll go for paint whilst we're away and be on the road when we return.

 
#10 ·
Not sure there'd be any profit involved ... weigh up what an 09 Clio with 87k miles is worth ... then consider, original outlay of damaged car, cost of replacement parts, labour and paint work ... factor in it's possibly recorded as a cat c Write off .. which would put potential buyers off.. not having a go at the OP
Because I can see this being a nice little project but you have to be realistic.
 
#12 ·
Quick little updated. We have been away on holiday for the last few weeks so only yesterday I got round to collecting the car from the painter. Its all painted now and just needs putting back together so hopefully by the weekend it'll be ready to go for its MOT and back on the road.
Quick pic below, the bumper is just resting in place at the moment just to see the colour match which I'm more than happy with.

 
#16 ·
Managed to get everything built back up yesterday. Few finishing jobs like aligning the bumper and bonnet properly, fit the wheel arch lining and it needs one headlight bulb and
It'll be ready for MOT test on Wednesday. It'll have a quick wash before the MOT but as it's been sat in a yard for months it is in need of a full detailing session which it'll have once it's on the road.

 
#20 ·
It is indeed, its my future father in laws little project with one of his mates. It's been there for years but a lot has been going on this year with it so hopefully be on the road for summer next year. It does have a roll cage going in it and a few other rally related stuff but the plan for it is to just be a toy rather than a competition car.

Here's a link to my rally car build though if you like your motorsport :thumb::driver:
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=387071
 
#24 ·
I've not had too much time to spend on the car recently but I did manage a few hours yesterday afternoon on it. Initial thoughts are that its going to take nearly as long cleaning it as it did to repair it.
Interior was given a hoover and all the plastics inside were treated with Autoglym interior shampoo and I then went over them with some Autoglym trim restorer. The seats and carpets are not particularly nice so my plan is to get the seats out so I can wet and dry them and the carpet


I didnt have much time to do a proper job on the outside so decided to just do a quick de-con to see what was underneath all the grime. Here is an example of what I had to work with.



The moss like stuff around the badges was pretty much everywhere, all the panel gaps, under the windows, mirrors, trim pieces, you name it, it was in there. The black fall out on the roof proved to be a bit of a pain to shift, as you'll see. It appears to have been baked onto the paint due to the time it spent sat in the salvage yard I assume. Anyway, I cracked on and let the Iron X do its thing



I then rinsed it off and got some snow foam on her


I let that settle for a while and then rinsed that off , leaving me with this.




Not too bad for a non contact wash and the mission was achieved as all I wanted to see was what was under the grime to see what I've got to work with. The roof is the worse problem so I'll have a go at that with some bug and tar remover to see if that will shift it and then get the clay bar on it. The whole car will need a good claying so I need to set aside another weekend to get it to where I want it to be really.
The other side note is that the wheels are in an awful state. But since I was planning to refurb them anyway, its not the end of the world. Overall I would say the interior hasn't had much loving at all over the years and neither has the exterior really but I shall put that right. :thumb:
 
#25 ·
Not much been happening lately. Just putting mileage on the car and sussing it out and I am pleased to report no mechanical issues and it is proving to be a nice cheap little car to run.
Managed to clay the roof at the weekend. It looked like this and had the black fall out all over it

after a good going over it looked like this

So a vast improvement. The only downer was it appears that my little K2 has died after only a year so a new one needs to be sourced and possibly upgraded.
 
#28 ·
Thats what I thought, however when I contacted the lady that had it before me about service history etc.. she sent me the whole Reanult folder with a fully stamped book aswell as invoices for other work thats carried out. Mechanically she is spot on, just a downer that the paint work wasn't cared for as much but I'll do my best to put that right.

I had one of these a few years ago, needed a car with great mpg for a 80 mile trip to work each day, the car got 65mpg and was reliable up to 100,000 miles when the alternator gave up. Only issue I found was that it liked good oil, the turbo was noisy on any oil apart from Mobil 1.

Only other issue was my wife liked to put hand cream on her hands and then get in the car, the steering wheel plastic started to rot. I sanded the rim down and then gave it a coat of lacquer, looked like new again, and Mrs GP was kindly asked if she would mind putting her hand cream on when she got out of the car.

You have done a great job on getting the Clio looking good, well done.
So far its been brilliant, I get about 62-63mpg which is ideal and it zips along quite nicely too.

Thanks for the heads up on the oil, thats next on the list of things to do. Ahh the steering wheel...they seem to be made of the worst quality plastic ever. Mine has a rubbed through patch too but Im tempted to put a rally type wheel in if I go ahead with the other changes I have in mind.

Thanks for the comments, its very much a work in progress at the moment but its getting there.
 
#27 ·
I had one of these a few years ago, needed a car with great mpg for a 80 mile trip to work each day, the car got 65mpg and was reliable up to 100,000 miles when the alternator gave up. Only issue I found was that it liked good oil, the turbo was noisy on any oil apart from Mobil 1.

Only other issue was my wife liked to put hand cream on her hands and then get in the car, the steering wheel plastic started to rot. I sanded the rim down and then gave it a coat of lacquer, looked like new again, and Mrs GP was kindly asked if she would mind putting her hand cream on when she got out of the car.

You have done a great job on getting the Clio looking good, well done.
 
#30 ·
The salvage yard that it was sat at for the best part of 9 months is right next to a railway line so that would explain it.

I do like them, that could well be a good solution now. I even have another steering wheel from the doner car I bought that I could send away to be done.
 
#31 · (Edited)
Not much been happening on this lately. Its been working hard just taking me back and forth to work. I've done a few thousand miles in it now and touch wood, its been faultless.
The only problem I have is that the headlights are rubbish due to poor bulbs so I have got some nice LED ones on order which will hopefully be here this week. Im toying with the idea of lowering it as it rolls like nothing I've ever driven before and maybe play around with a different set of wheels.

Also, since photo bucket went **** up, here are some of the images from earlier in the thread.


 
#33 ·
I've never had a car with such poor headlights. The first time I drove it at night I put it down to poor alignment as we had changed the headlights over from the donor car. But when checked the alignment was spot on. So new LED cree bulbs will go in over the weekend now and hopefully that will give a drastic improvement.
 
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